Tuesday Trivia

All about The Human Body, Drugs & Medicine:

Cocaine was the first local anesthetic; being used as such from about 1884 onwards.

The practice of trepanation, the surgical act of boring holes into the skull, began 7000 years ago and still continues today.

More than 50 percent of the people who are bitten by venomous snakes in the United States and who go untreated still survive.

The average male adult is 5'9'' tall and weighs 155 pounds. The average female adult is 5'3'' tall and weighs 125 pounds.

There are 106 boys born for every 100 girls.

The average age of which American presidents have taken office is 54.

The size of your foot is approximately the size of your forearm.

The skeleton of an average 160 lb body weighs about 29 lbs.

On average, right-handed people live 9 years longer than their left-handed counterparts.

During pregnancy, the average woman's uterus expands up to five hundred times its normal size.

A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a few weeks.


The first blood transfusion was performed by Cornish physician Richard Lower in 1665. Using hollow quills, Dr. Lower pumped blood from one dog into another. Years later another physician, Jean-Babtiste Denis, became the first to transfer blood from an animal to a human.

The liver is found only in vertebrates and is the body's largest gland. It is also the body's own chemical plant; carrying on a dozen important metabolic functions as well.

Phineas Gage became renowned when he had a metal bar go through his head and he survived. However, his personality changed. A man who was once content and considerate, became a man who was moody and foul-mouthed. His injury paved the way for an understanding into how the frontal lobe affected personality.


People with the rare condition called "synesthesia" not only taste colors, but see words and feel flavors. Each person is unique in how they perceive the world; some smell colors or taste shapes, while others associate colors with sound, perceiving each note as a different hue. The condition has been linked to less blood flow to those parts of the brain that receive sensory stimulation.

The ancient Greek physicians maintained that the balance of the humors, controlled a person's temperament. The blood (sanguis), made a person cheerful; phlegm (pituita), meant slow moving; Yellow bile (chole), made one hot tempered; black bile (melanchole), caused depression. If any of the four humors were out of balance, it reflected on the body and mind as a whole.

After being shot in the abdomen, Alexis St. Martin was treated, but the hole did not heal or close. To keep the contents from oozing out, the wound had to be stuffed with a cotton cloth. He allowed his surgeon, William Beaumont, to do experiments using samples of his stomach contents. The experiments helped in identifying the stomach acid (hydrochloric acid), and to study the stomach's movements.

Color-blind bulls simply notice the waving motion and react by snorting, stomping and charging the bullfighter. The red flags are used because the human spectators seated can easily spot them.

The longest amount of time a patient had to wait on a stretcher was 77 hours and 30 minutes. Tony Collins of the UK came to the hospital with a viral infection, and stayed stuck outside of the washroom of Swindon's Princess Margaret Hospital for four days. Despite the ordeal, Collins returned to the hospital the day after his release to thank his nurses and give them a microwave oven.

Garry Turner of England holds the world record for the stretchiest skin. In 1999, he stretched the skin of his stomach to a distended length of 6.25 inches on the set of Guinness World Records: Primetime in Los Angeles. Turner has a rare medical condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which causes collagen to become defective, and leads to a loosening of the skin, hypermobility of the joints, and other problems.

The youngest person to wear dentures is Alexander Stone of Kentucky, who was fitted with a set at the age of four years and 301 days. The boy suffers from dentinogenesis imperfecta, a hereditary condition that weakens the teeth.

Charles Jensen of the US holds the record for the most number of operations, having undergone 970 of them between 19541994. The operations were to remove facial tumors associated with basal cell nevus syndrome, a genetic disorder that may cause malignant tumors.

Cheyenne Pyle was the world's youngest heart transplant patient, having undergone the operation when she was an hour old. She was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a fatal condition that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. Unfortunately baby Cheyenne did not recover, and died nine weeks later.

The longest medical operation lasted 96 hours. The operation took place from February 48, 1951 in the USA, and involved the removal of an ovarian cyst.

Monaco has the largest number of physicians per capita, with one doctor per 169 people. Malawi has the fewest, with only one physician per 49,118 people.

The longest coma lasted 37 years and 111 days. Elaine Esposito (1934–1978) of the US fell into a coma after being anesthetized for an appendectomy at age six. She became
known as "Sleeping Beauty" during her coma, and died at the age of 43 without regaining consciousness.

The world's heaviest kidney stone weighed 12.5 ounces, and measured 4.66 inches at its widest point. It belonged to Peter Baulman of Australia.

Don Winfield of Canada holds the undesirable record for the most number of kidney stones produced. As of April 16, 2003, Winfield had produced and passed 4,504 kidney stones, and lived in constant pain due to his condition.

The oldest known human disease is leprosy. Cases were described in ancient Egypt in 1350 BC, making the disease at least 3,356 years old.

Currently, the most common cause of death in children world-wide is infectious diseases, which is responsible for 63% of all deaths. Among adults, tobacco-related illnesses cause the most deaths, and the World Health Organization estimates that by 2020, these illnesses will claim more lives than AIDS, tuberculosis, road accidents, murder, and suicide combined.